The Queen of Steeplechase Park

The Queen of Steeplechase Park is the absolutely, positively, practically, almost-true story of infamous burlesque queen and magic meatball maker Belladonna Marie Donato.

Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighborhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, she is robbed of her baby by a pack of nefarious nuns and her embittered papa has her sterilized without her consent (legal in 1935). With the help of a besotted Francis and her top-secret meatball recipe, a devastated Bella embarks on a riotous quest through Depression-era Coney Island sideshows, the tawdry world of peek-a-boo striptease routines, a queer mob marriage, and a tasty collection of wisdom-filled recipes to find her lost child, herself, and maybe even true love. It all leads Bella back home, to the scene of her Original Sin, where she boldly faces matters of life and death, questions of forgiveness, and a holy mess only the healing properties of great Italian cooking can fix.

"The brilliant David Ciminello 's hilarious and moving novel The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a crazy Italian circus with a heart as big as Sicily. I loved Belladonna Marie Donato and her merry band of misfits, outcasts who become chosen family as she makes peace with her family of origin. A glorious Italian American feast! Bravo David!" Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone

"David Ciminello has written a great big rollercoaster of a novel....Read this book! Hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time." Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

"Ciminello is a master of delicious wordplay. His lusciously cinematic story is a veritable carnival ride culled from his family's kitchen history. The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a tasty tale of love, sex, and the holy magic of homemade Italian cooking." Blair Fell, author of The Sign for Home

"Open your mouth and ready your heart because Belladonna Marie from The Queen of Steeplechase Park is about to serve you some unforgettable tales of love and loss, with a side of meatballs. David Ciminello has re-animated Depression era Coney Island with such vivid and dazzling detail that I wanted to laugh, cry, eat a hot dog, and go for a swim all at once. A phenomenal story of a Burlesque queen searching for her lost baby in the glitz, ooze, and hum of sideshows from Brighton to Gravesend. I couldn't put it down." Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Thrust

"Meet Belladonna Marie, the force of nature plucked from the historical and culinary passions of David Ciminello. Set in depression-era Coney Island, the novel whips up a bevy of queer, memorable eccentrics, served with a heaping side of sumptuous language. From Melanzana to Puttana, The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a whimsical, gastronomical delight." Suzy Vitello author of Bitterroot

David Ciminello is a Lambda Literary Fellow and the proud recipient of a Table 4 Writers Foundation Grant. His fiction has appeared in the Lambda Award-winning anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City, Nailed Magazine, and in fine artist Stephen O'Donnell's The Untold Gaze. His work has also been published in the literary journal Lumina and the online anthology Underwater New York. His stories have been featured on the podcast series Storytellers Telling Stories and Peace, Love & Soup and on broadcastr. His original screenplay Bruno, an Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting finalist, was made into a motion picture directed by Shirley MacLaine and starring Kathy Bates, Gary Sinise, and Jennifer Tilly. As a New York City teaching artist, David has taught poetry and has slam-coached multiple award-winning Bronx students, grades 3-5. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in acting from The Catholic University of America and a master's degree in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. David and his husband, photographer and podcast artist Brian Delaney, currently reside in Portland, Oregon.